CLUBBED TO HIS KNEES
As illustrations of embarrassments we had to face, I have chiefly chosen
incidents showing a kindly and forbearing spirit on the part of Federal
commanders, because I desire to pay tribute wherever I may to men in blue,
remembering that Southern boys are now wearing the blue and that all men
wearing the blue are ours. I have chiefly chosen incidents in which the
Federal officers, being gentlemen and brave men--being decent and
human--revolted against exercise of cruelty to a fallen foe.
Truth compels the shield's reverse.
In Richmond, one officer in position went to a prominent citizen and
demanded $600 of him, threatening to confiscate and sell his home if he
did not give it. This citizen, a lawyer and man of business, knew the
threat could not be executed, and refused to meet the demand. Others not
so wise paid such claims. In all parts of the South, many people, among
them widows and orphans, were thus impoverished beyond the pinched
condition in which war left them. Some sold their remnants of furniture,
the very beds they slept on, a part of their scanty raiment, and in one
case on official record, "the coverlid off the baby's bed," to satisfy the
spurious claims of men misusing authority.
An instance illustrating our helplessness is that of Captain Bayard, who
came out of the war with some make-shift crutches, a brave heart, and a
love affair as the sum total of his capital in life. He made his first
money by clerical work for sympathetic Federal officials. This he invested
in a new suit of clothes; "They are right nice-looking," he said with
modest pride when conveying the pleasing intelligence to one interested;
and he bought a pair of artificial feet.
Then he set out to see his sweetheart, feeling very proud. It was the
first time he had tried his feet on the street, and he was not walking
with any sense of security, but had safely traversed a square or two and
was crossing a street, when a Federal officer came galloping along and
very nearly ran over him; he threw up his cane. The horse shied, the
cavalryman jumped off and knocked him down. As fast as he struggled up,
the cavalryman knocked him down again. A burly man ran to his assistance;
the cavalryman struck this man such a blow that it made tears spring in
his eyes; then mounted and galloped off. "He was obliged to see," said the
captain, "that I was a cripple, and that I could not get out of his way or
withstand his blows."
The worst Virginia had to bear was as nothing to what the Carolinas
suffered. There was that poor boy, who was hung in Raleigh on Lovejoy's
tree--where the Governor's Mansion now stands. He had fired off a pistol;
had hurt nobody--had not attempted to hurt anybody; it was just a boy's
thoughtless, crazy deed.
Entering Rosemont Cemetery, Newberry, S. C., one perceives on a tall
marble shaft "The Lone Star of Texas" and this: "Calvin S. Crozier, Born
at Brandon, Mississippi, August 1840, Murdered at Newberry, S. C.,
September 8, 1865."
At the close of the war, there were some 99,000 Confederates in Federal
prisons, whose release, beginning in May, continued throughout the
summer. Among these was Crozier, slender, boyish in appearance, brave,
thin to emaciation, pitifully weak and homesick. It was a far cry to his
home in sunny Galveston, but he had traversed three States when he fell
ill in North Carolina. A Good Samaritan nursed him, and set him on his way
again. At Orangeburg, S. C., a gentleman placed two young ladies,
journeying in the same direction, under his care. To Crozier, the trust
was sacred. At Newberry, the train was derailed by obstructions placed on
the track by negro soldiers of the 33d U. S. Regiment, which, under
command of Colonel Trowbridge, white, was on its way from Anderson to
Columbia. Crozier got out with others to see what was the matter.
Returning, he found the coach invaded by two half-drunk negro soldiers,
cursing and using indecent language. He called upon them to desist,
directing their attention to the presence of ladies. They replied that
they "didn't care a d----!" One attempted gross familiarities with one of
the ladies. Crozier ejected him; the second negro interfered; there was a
struggle in the dark; one negro fled unhurt; the other, with a slight cut,
ran towards camp, yelling: "I'm cut by a d----d rebel!" Black soldiers
came in a mob.
The narrative, as told on the monument, concludes: "The infuriated
soldiers seized a citizen of Newberry, upon whom they were about to
execute savage revenge, when Crozier came promptly forward and avowed his
own responsibility. He was hurried in the night-time to the bivouac of the
regiment to which the soldiers belonged, was kept under guard all night,
was not allowed communication with any citizen, was condemned to die
without even the form of a trial, and was shot to death about daylight the
following morning, and his body mutilated."
He had been ordered to dig his own grave, but refused. A hole had been
dug, he was made to kneel on its brink, the column fired upon him, he
tumbled into it, and then the black troops jumped on it, laughing,
dancing, stamping. The only mercy shown him was by one humane negro, who,
eager to save his life, besought him to deny his identity as the striker
of the blow. White citizens watched their moment, removed his remains, and
gave them Christian burial.
There was the burning of Brenham, Texas, September 7, 1866. Federal
soldiers from the post attended a negro ball, and so outraged the
decencies that negro men closed the festivities. The soldiers pursued the
negro managers, one of whom fled for safety to a mansion, where a party of
young white people were assembled. The pursuers abused him in profane and
obscene terms. The gentlemen reminded them that ladies were in hearing;
they said they "didn't care a d----!" and drew pistols on the whites. A
difficulty ensued, two soldiers were wounded, their comrades carried them
to camp, returned and fired the town. The incendiaries were never
punished, their commander spiriting them away when investigation was
begun.[11]
"Numbers of our citizens were murdered by the soldiers of the United
States, and in some instances deliberately shot down by them, in the
presence of their wives and children," writes Hon. Charles Stewart, of
reconstruction times, early and late, in Texas, and cites the diabolical
midnight murder of W. A. Burns and Dallas, his son, giving the testimony
of Sarah, daughter of one, sister of the other, and witness of the
horrible deed, from the performance of which the assassins walked away
"laughing." "Let no one suppose that the instances given were isolated
cases of oppression that might occur under any Government, however good,"
says Mr. Stewart. "They were of such frequent occurrence as to excite the
alarm of good people."
Federal posts were a protection to the people, affording a sense of peace
and security, or the reverse, according to the character of the
commanders. To show how differently different men would determine the same
issue, it may be cited that General Wilde confiscated the home of Mrs.
Robert Toombs to the uses of the Freedmen's Bureau, ordering her to give
possession and limiting the supplies she might remove to two weeks'
provisions. General Steedman humanely revoked this order, restoring her
home to Mrs. Toombs. There was no rule by which to forecast the course a
military potentate, ignorant of civil law, might pursue. The mood he was
in, the dinner he had eaten, the course of a flirtation on hand, motives
of personal spite, gain or favoritism, might determine a decision
affecting seriously a whole community, who would be powerless to appeal
against it, his caprice being law.
In a previous chapter I have told a story showing General Saxton in a most
attractive light. In his "Provisional Governorship of South Carolina,"
Governor Perry says: "The poor refugees (of the Sea Islands) were without
fortune, money or the means of living! Many had nothing to eat except
bread and water, and were thankful if they could get bread. I appointed W.
H. Trescott to go to Washington and represent them in trying to recover
their lands. He procured an order for the restoration, but General Saxton
or some of his sub-agents thwarted in some way the design and purport of
this order, and I believe the negroes are still in possession."
So, in some places you will hear Southerners say that, save for domestic
and industrial upheavals resulting from emancipation and for the
privations of acute poverty, they suffered no extreme trials while under
the strictly martial regime--were victims of no act of tyranny from local
Federal authorities; in other places, you will hear words reflecting
praise on such authorities; in others, evidence is plain that inhabitants
endured worse things of military satraps than Israel suffered of Pharaoh.
As the days went by, there were fresh occasions for the conclusion: "The
officers who gave Captain Bayard work and the officer who knocked him down
are types of two classes of our conquerors and rulers. One is ready to
help the cripple to his feet, the other to knock him down again and again.
Congress will club the cripple with the negro ballot." "If that be true,"
said some, "the cripple will rise no more. Let me go hence ere my eyes
behold it. Spilled blood and ruin wrought I can forgive, but not this
thing!"
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